The present invention relates to a device disposed in a conveying path for elongate objects having a desired length in the conveying direction for separating objects whose length is less than that desired from the conveying path.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,420, issued to Pierre Luginbuhl on July 18th, 1978, discloses apparatus for aligning elongate objects with their long dimension oriented transversely to the conveying direction and for separating out objects of unacceptable small length. While this apparatus functions well, it has been found to be too expensive, in consideration of the function which it performs. Moreover, in many cases it is simpler to convey elongate objects in their longitudinal direction, as this is the custom, for example, when introducing candy-covered chewing gum into packaging machines.
Although such confections generally hold their shape quite well, it may happen that shorter pieces, particularly broken pieces, come to lie between pieces of normal length. It has been found that such pieces can produce considerable malfunctions in packaging machines, requiring cleaning operations that entail long down times. Even though this happens only rarely, it is very desirable to prevent such malfunctions with the greatest possible certainty. While it might be possible to monitor the length of the individual objects by means of sensors, e.g. electric eyes, devices for performing this operation would be rather complicated and expensive.